Abernathy House
Pittsburg, Camp County, Texas
Marker Inscription
David Harper Abernathy was born in 1858 in Arkansas. He moved with his family to Pittsburg in 1864. After learning business in Nashville, Tennessee, David returned to help run his father’s dry goods store. He was a major leader in town and was heavily involved in the Methodist Church. This house was built for the Abernathy family in 1896 by George Barber. It is a two-story queen Anne-style home, with a wraparound porch, spindle work and a front gable. The original front door is intact and much of the interior has remained unchanged. The house was expanded and modified after World War II. The house is a reminder of a century of the influential Abernathy family.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
David Harper Abernathy came to Pittsburg as a boy in 1864 and grew into one of the town's leading merchants and Methodist churchmen, running the family dry goods business he learned in Nashville. In 1896 builder George Barber raised this two-story Queen Anne home for the family, with its wraparound porch, spindle work, and front gable. Much of the interior survives, a physical record of a family that shaped the town for a century.
Why it matters
The house embodies the confident, ornament-rich domestic architecture that prosperous merchant families built across small-town America during the Gilded Age.
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Related people
- · David Harper Abernathy
- · George Barber
Themes & tags
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